An investigation of the theme of Transparency in the Canadian Federal Government. Non-partisan: Power corrupts and Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. Our model: the muckracker journalists.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

CAVEAT EMPTOR: buyer beware

"We can't live in this grandiose U.S. fantasy world any longer, this
pretense of our unlimited exceptional America that is the pinnacle of
all evolution up to this moment. We are actually moving into a period of
collapse nurtured for a long time by that hubris. Coming to terms with
ourselves is a critical and urgent task of this moment so that we can
learn how to encounter that collapse honestly, and then figure out how
we are going to live from here on out as the world moves into deeper and
deeper crisis.

There is much food for thought in these two texts. One need not agree with them completely but they do point to an essential point: we are living through an epoch of unprecedented change and transformation which, inevitably for those living through them, have an apocalyptic tenor and appearance. Change IS, after all, unsettling, especially if it means the loss of the very things we defined ourselves by, like SUVs, cheap energy, the hyperconsumption society..)

Another point for reflection: what does all this have to do with govermental transparency?

Quite a lot, actually. Covering up the truth, lack of transparency, is a way for corrupt, ruling elites to hold on to power as long as they can. The public is diverted by "bread and circuses": pseudo-issues (gay marriage, abortion, islamofascism, "socialism", the president's citizenship status, Climategate), or mind-deadening / soul-destroying mass "entertainment" and spectator sports. When the public is no longer focused on real issues, the masters of the old order can hold onto power for a little longer..